Around the autumn of 2016, news-reports had come in that the then Right Wing government in Rajasthan plans to remove the particular chapter on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, from the school text books. Also, news reports had come in that students in Rajasthan were to be taught incorrect and twisted versions of historical facts: Maharana Pratap defeated the army of Mughal Emperor Akbar in the Battle of Haldighati some 450 years ago. This is incorrect as historical evidence shows that Maharana Pratap, ruler of the Mewar region, had fled the battlefield, although in the later years he continued his guerilla war against the Mughals… Also, the then BJP-led government in Rajasthan had even renamed the Ajmer Fort — from Akbar Ka Qila to ‘Ajmer ka Qila and Sangrahalaya’.

No expert committee of historians and academics was involved in the decision. Just by the order of the then Rajasthan education minister, Vasudev Devnani, the name of this historical fort was changed. Mind you, this fort built by Akbar in 1570 was left untouched even during the rule of the Rathors, Marathas and the British. The original name of the Ajmer Fort was legally sanctioned by a Gazette notification in December, 1968. It was named as ‘Akbar ka Qila’ or ‘Daulat Khana’ and this name continued till, of course, Right-Wing came centre stage. In fact, the very apparent dislike for the Mughals of the then Right-Wing government in Rajasthan, can be judged from the fact that not just the very title ‘Great’ was removed from Mughal Emperor Akbar’s name, but the relevant focus on him was also removed from the text books taught in the state of Rajasthan.

Also, the Maharashtra government under the earlier BJP rule had almost near-defaced the names of Muslim rulers from its history text books. There were plans to omit from the text books, vital details to the Delhi Sultanate and the Suri Empire in India, without realizing that without those, the very history of India would be incomplete. Perhaps half-history if nothing else!

And the RSS’s intrusion into the education sphere was more than apparent, when the RSS-affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas, headed by Dina Nath Batra, had sent a list of recommendations to the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) demanding a host of changes in its textbooks. Batra asked the NCERT to remove English, Urdu, and Arabic words, a poem by the revolutionary poet Pash and a couplet by Mirza Ghalib, the thoughts of Rabindranath Tagore, extracts from painter MF Husain’s autobiography.

“It seems fantastical, you think you’re absolutely fine, you’re pottering along, you’re coping with it, cleaning, cooking, cleaning, cooking and you suddenly burst into tears, and it’s the fear and it’s the vulnerability coming out. And then you pick yourself up and you go along again, as if nothing happened, and it’s surreal.”

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

Updated 9:48 AM ET, Mon November 30, 2020

There are tons of great RSS readers already available for iPhone but they all have one thing in common – they manage to make reading news a chore at times. Unread counts, badges, unread states. Stream doesn’t have any of that, and it’s better for it. It’s RSS like it used to be back in the day.

Stream is different from other RSS readers because it puts all of your feeds into a “river of news” just like RSS was intended to be. Articles appear in a scrollable list, similar to a Twitter timeline, waiting to be read. If you don’t read them, the move down the stream. Eventually, they’re gone. And that’s just fine.

Stream is a different take on feed readers. It displays your feeds in a timeline, similar to Twitter.

Stream doesn’t maintain a read/unread count because life is too short to stress over that kind of stuff.

That sounds like just the ticket, especially for those of us who find keeping up on the constant firehose of news impossible to keep up with. Stream gives you permission to not keep up with the news and it’s surprisingly liberating.

Dave Winer, the man behind RSS, calls this idea a River of News. Stream is a mobile River of News. You have full control over what you subscribe to. It’s all decentralized so you don’t rely on a service to collect your feeds.

What’s better, Stream is available for free and you can download it from the App Store now. Get it, try it. See what RSS used to be like before Feedly and co got involved.

Who knows. You might like it!

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.

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When The Crown returns for its fifth season, however, her character will be taken on by Australia’s Elizabeth Debicki, of Tenet and Widows fame.

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Oct. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — When Chinese clone Donald Trump squares off against Satan himself in the year 2044, he’s in for the fight of his life to save the human race from an evil alien race known as the Illuminati.

Written and directed by award-winning filmmaker B.C. Fourteen and starring Wes Bruff, Marco Guzmán and comedian Timothy Banfield.

The film’s hero and savior of the human race is a Chinese clone of 45th U.S. president, Donald J. Trump whose petri dish body has been fused with the latest AI technology. He’s destined for eternal life and really large hands.

Advanced AI robots drain the Earth of its natural resources, leaving it as a barren shell. Humanity is forced adrift in space fighting for survival. Trump survives the planet’s destruction by escaping his maximum-security lab and stowing-away aboard the last space-bound shuttle.

The ship crashes on Mars, stranding Trump’s clone on a barren prison planet for 1,000 years. Blazing hot days turn into subfreezing nights, as he joyrides in his only toy — a souped-up surface rover., while across space the human race continues to fight its most costly battle ever for survival with The Illuminati.

Upon discovering he’s been prophesied to destroy The Illuminati, Trump’s clone joins forces with surviving human allies to bring the battle straight to Illuminati headquarters — in hell. When Donald Trump meets Satan himself, he’s in for the fight of his cloned life.

B.C. Fourteen is a screenwriter, novelist, film director, and editor. He has worked in various capacities of motion picture production and literary publishing and is responsible for a wide variety of genre, documentary, and animated feature films.

He began his career with a slate of award-winning short films and music videos. Some of his notable works include New Terminal Hotel released as 2013’s Do Not Disturb, Werewolf Rising in 2014, Go Big Or Go Home in 2018 and Bigfoot vs the Illuminati.

Timothy Banfield is an actor and comedian known for his voicework in numerous animated features and videogames. He has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Warmhammer 40,000.

You can see a quick teaser or a two-minute trailer and Trump’s dance scene as he prepares battle the Illuminati.

The one hour and nine-minute film was released to limited U.S. and Canadian theaters on Oct. 6, 2020 in English. The genre of the film is classified as a comedy, action, Sci Fi, adventure, and animation.

It’s available on dvd and video on demand at Amazon Prime, Vimeo, DirectTV, Amazon,  and Walmart. Follow us online at Tiktok, Instagram and Facebook.

For further information or to schedule an interview contact Evan Tramel at [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Evan Tramel
Trump vs. The Illuminati
www.trumpvstheilluminati.com
Ruthless Studios
P.O. Box 6919972
Hollywood, CA 90069
Phone: (202) 456-2121
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Ruthless Studios

Photo credit: Bronson Park Films

The new documentary “#Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump” argues that Trump should be removed from office under the 25th Amendment on the grounds that he’s psychologically unfit.

“#Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump” just became available on demand. The new documentary wants audiences to consider the mental health of President Trump before they mark their ballots in the November election.

The website for the film states: “#UNFIT is NOT politically motivated; it does not advocate for policy issues or take a stance on matters of state. The film is also NOT intended to offer a formal diagnosis nor recommend treatment. This film speaks only to the collective welfare of Americans, and the world. It is rooted in science, and espoused by experts that include doctors whose sole motivation is their Duty to Warn.”

Aired 9/2/20
on KPBS News

Listen to this story by Beth Accomando.

That’s not the typical kind of publicity notes that critics are used to finding but it reveals the passionate motivation behind the film and the urgency that the filmmakers feel.

Duty to Warn is an association of mental health professionals and other concerned citizens who advocate for President Trump’s removal from office under the 25th Amendment on the grounds that he’s psychologically unfit. They present their case in Dan Partland’s documentary “#Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump.” The film assesses Trump as suffering from a condition known as malignant narcissism, which consists of narcissism, paranoia, anti-social personality disorder and sadism.

Justin Frank, a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, states the film’s case clearly and succinctly: “Is Donald Trump fit to serve as the president and commander in chief? I can answer that with one word. No.”

Part of the film is dedicated to considering how dangerous it is to have someone like Trump with his finger on the nuclear button, but that is only part of the danger. Psychologist John Gartner offers this: “The natural tendency of history in many ways is toward greater liberalism and altruism. But human nature has these competing forces. And so what we’re seeing now is this amazing regression, right, from where we were. We are literally going backwards, I think a century or two. We all have to do everything that we can do because our society is at risk and we could lose it all. We all have to do everything that we can do because our society is at risk and we could lose it all. We could lose this grand experiment in democracy, I think we’re more than halfway there.”

That’s a dire warning and one the film backs up by interviewing not just psychologists but also historians, politicians, former Trump staffers and others. People such as ex-Naval intelligence figure Malcolm Nance; attorney George Conway (spouse of Trump aide Kellyanne Conway); former staffer Anthony Scaramucci; sportswriter Rick Reilly (who suggests that if Trump lies and cheats in golf why wouldn’t those traits extend to the Oval office); and specialists on authoritarianism and history such as Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Ph.D., who wrote “Fascist Modernities: Italy 1922-1945.”

The film is a brisk 83 minutes but packed with interviews, news footage, film and pop culture references and animation that is decidedly unflattering to Trump. The film tries to place all of what is happening right now in a larger context to try to convey the dangers it sees.

Part of that larger context is outlined by Nance who says, “The founding fathers always knew that a king-like tyrant would try to rule as a personal dictator and use the powers of the presidency to enhance or enrich himself, but they never foresaw the Senate and the judiciary might completely abdicate their responsibilities and go along with that.”

So it is not simply that Trump is unfit for office but that the checks and balances we thought would protect us from people like Trump failed.

One interesting side point that the entertaining Scaramucci raises is about how labeling Trump supporters as “deplorables” ignored why that voting base was supporting Trump.

“So people feel that the system is rigged and the system is unfair toward them,” Scaramucci says in the film, “You call these people deplorable, white, ethnocentric white nationalists, whatever those like knuckle-dragging misnomers, those adjectives of attack on these people, they tune you out. You’d be better served going into those areas of the country and listening to them and saying, ‘hey, you know what, I don’t think you’re a racist or you’re a white trash person. I think you’re a person that really just wants your family to have a better life. And as a public servant, I’m going to try to come up with policies that help you do that.'”

That helps gives context to how Trump was able to win support and ultimately win the election if not the popular vote. Then Ben-Ghiat puts “alt-facts” and “fake news” into the context of gaslighting in which someone lies to make someone else doubt their sense of reality. The film explains how the term came from Patrick Hamilton’s play “Gaslight” and the subsequent movie adaptations in which a husband tries to drive his wife insane by making her doubt her own memory and perceptions (the documentary uses clips from the less famous 1940 film version with Anton Walbrook and Diana Wynyard rather than the 1944 one with Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman).

The film builds a compelling case for Trump being unfit for office. But the problem is that no matter how much information it presents, no matter how many examples it cites from Trump’s own words and actions, it ultimately may only preach to the converted. So it may not be reach viewers whose minds it wants to change. But to those willing to listen, it offers a terrifying warning.

The Duty to Warn website includes a page of articles adding further support to its argument as well as legislative action that works toward mitigating and addressing the clear danger it sees posed by Trump.

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Beth Accomando

Arts Culture Reporter

I cover arts and culture, from Comic-Con to opera, from pop entertainment to fine art, from zombies to Shakespeare. I am interested in going behind the scenes to explore the creative process; seeing how pop culture reflects social issues; and providing a context for art and entertainment.

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Hugh Laurie and Dev Patel star in Armando Iannucci’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “The Personal History of David Copperfield.”

Charles Dickens’ “The Personal History of David Copperfield,” published in 1850, has a lively new film adaptation currently playing in theaters.

Armando Iannucci is best known for his razor sharp satires like the films “In the Loop” and “Death of Stalin,” and the TV shows “Thick of It” and “Veep.” But with “The Personal History of David Copperfield” he tries his hand at adapting Charles Dickens and reveals a flair for a much warmer and endearing storytelling style.

Aired 9/14/20
on KPBS News

Listen to this story by Beth Accomando.

David Copperfield (played by Dev Patel as an adult), is a young man who experiences poverty and tragedy as a child, escapes through his imagination, makes some bad choices but ultimately proves to be a good man. His life is filled with the kinds of eccentric characters that we expect from Dickens as well as the kind of extremes in terms of failure and success, wealth and poverty, good and bad people.

Iannucci keeps the film set in the mid-1800s but he gives the world a modern spin with his color blind casting that fills Dickens’ London with a racially diverse group. What’s refreshing is that he does this without a self-congratulatory smugness of a contemporary filmmaker “correcting” inequities but rather with the excitement of someone just not being bound by old conventions. Every one from Dev Patel as David to Peter Capaldi as Mr. Micaber to Ben Wheatley as Uriah Heep to Rosiland Eleazar as Agnes to Benedict Wong as Mr. Wickfield are perfectly and cleverly cast. Oh, and did I also mention Tilda Swinton and Hugh Laurie? How can you not revel in the acting choices made in this film.

Patel delivers a wonderfully energetic performance as the title character, a fallible yet ultimately good-hearted man who overcomes his impoverished roots to become a writer. Iannucci finds engaging ways to convey Copperfield’s perspective and imagination.

As with his political satires, Iannucci has a clear-eyed sense of the world but here he gets to not only show the inequities and stupidity but also to highlight the humanity found in people.

“The Personal History of David Copperfield” is a streamlined and lively adaptation of Dickens’ beloved classic that can bring joy at a time when I feel like we need it.

It is currently only available in theaters.

FEATURED PODCAST

San Diego news; when you want it, where you want it. Get local stories on politics, education, health, environment, the border and more. New episodes are ready weekday mornings. Hosted by Anica Colbert and produced by KPBS, San Diego and the Imperial County’s NPR and PBS station.

Beth Accomando

Arts Culture Reporter

I cover arts and culture, from Comic-Con to opera, from pop entertainment to fine art, from zombies to Shakespeare. I am interested in going behind the scenes to explore the creative process; seeing how pop culture reflects social issues; and providing a context for art and entertainment.

Want more KPBS news?
Find us on Twitter and Facebook, or sign up for our newsletters. + Subscribe to our podcasts

To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader.

In a shocking incident in Kerala’s Mallapuram district, the Popular Front of India (PFI) took out a rally in which persons dressed like RSS cadres and British soldiers were chained and paraded on the street. The street play, which was supposed to be a representation of the 1921 Mapila revolt against the British, saw men dressed as RSS cadres and British soldiers chained and being paraded on the streets followed by PFI members. In the video, PFI members brandishing sticks can be seen marching along with chants of ‘Allahu Akbar. 

READ | Karnataka Home Minister Flays PFI Leader For ‘anti-national Speech’; Assures Police Action

PFI general secretary Anis Ahmed claimed that it was a street play carried out by members who attended the outfit’s rally. The PFI office-bearer claimed that it was a representation of the revolt of the Malabar against the British. On the contrary, PFI’s street play showed RSS men being chained and tied to ropes alongside British soldiers. The Malabar rebellion shook Kerala in 1921 where communal clashes erupted between the Hindus and Muslims in the state while the colonial government was also targeted by the minority community.

READ | PFI Provokes On Ram Temple Donation; MoS MEA Tells Organisation ‘to Respect Constitution’

PFI leader’s provocative speech

‘”From this stage, I am telling all of you, that all these people who are coming to your houses for collecting funds for Ram Temple, do not give them a single penny. Just boycott them the way y’all boycotted the NRC (National Register for Citizens). I want to say this to all the Muslim businessman and shop owners, that if you have even the slightest of courage, do not give a single rupee to all these RSS people who are asking for donations. This is because this is not a mandir for Ram, this is an RSS mandir and for that, not even a single brick should go from the money of Muslims”, PFI’s Anis Ahmed had said during his speech at Mangalore during PFI Day. 

“I want to say this to all the Muslim businessman and shop owners, that if you have even the slightest of courage, do not give a single rupee to all these RSS people who are asking for donations. This is because this is not a mandir for Ram, this is an RSS mandir and for that, not even a single brick should go from the money of Muslims,” he added.  

READ | Karnataka Min R Ashoka Vows To Ban ‘anti-social’ PFI In State; Says He’ll Talk To HM Shah

MoS MEA slams PFI 

Union Minister V Muraleedharan on Friday hit out at the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its leader Anis Ahmed for provocative remarks on Ram Mandir donation drive. Ahmed, General Secretary of the PFI while addressing a gathering on ‘Popular Front Day 2021’ in Karnataka on Thursday said that Muslims should not donate for the construction of the Ram temple because that is an “RSS mandir.”

READ | PFI Case: Court In UP’s Mathura Re-issues B-warrant For 5th Accused Lodged In Kerala Jail

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